A Press Democrat Blog

Capes, Cowls, and the Press Democrat

The following first appeared on Blastoff Comic’s website If soldiers and thieves have one thing in common, it is the allure of one last job. For fifty years, Col. Nick Fury has been both a soldier and a thief as the leader of the Howling Commandos and as THE Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. This life has taught Fury that there is always more work to be done. The world will always need to be saved. But at the turn of the… Read More »

Dell Comics released The Funnies in 1929, which is credited as one of the first publications of a comic book with original material. The book was published in tabloid-size, as opposed to the traditional comic book format, which would become standard in 1933 with the release of Famous Funnies (and setting up the long standing tradition of comic publishers releasing thinly-veiled rip-offs of rival publications). The form would find its footing in 1939, with the release of Action Comicsby Detective Comics, Inc/DC Comics. In 1953,… Read More »

“Tepid.” That is the best word to describe Charles Soule and Steve McNiven’s The Death of Wolverine, the final (for now) story of Marvel’s premier mutant. I got it from CBR’s The Buy Pile and I find the word “tepid” to be so perfect. Never has a blaze of glory felt so stale. This week, The Death of Wolverine concluded with issue 4. Written by Soule (who just became exclusive to Marvel) and art by McNiven, the mini-series showed the… Read More »

The following first appeared in the June edition of Culture Counter Magazine. But I wrote it (and totally spaced on re-posting it), so we’re also gonna post it on the blog too. Enjoy! Part 2: Cracks in the Mark 42 Armor The “Amazing Spider-Man 2″ is basically the first post-”Avengers” superhero film. The three films Marvel Studios has released since (“Iron Man 3″, “Thor: The Dark World”, “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”) were already in motion, as part of their oft-mentioned “Phase… Read More »

The following first appeared in the April edition of Culture Counter Magazine. But I wrote it, so we’re also gonna post it on the blog too. Enjoy! Part 1: Nothing Lasts Forever The first issue of The Amazing Spider-Man, in fact Spidey’s first tussle with a super villain, features the Fantastic Four. In what is clearly a classic Stan Lee market move (their introductory caption begins “Extra Bonus Extra!!”), Peter Parker tries to get a job with the team as a… Read More »

THERE ARE SPOILERS FOR MAN OF STEEL. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK! I saw Man of Steel last weekend. After failing to see the midnight showing (my theater only offered it in 3D and I wisely decided against that), I wanted to wait and get some distance from the film’s initial outrage and controversy before I waded into the film. I did and I think it was the right call because now I can better focus on the failings of the film (of… Read More »

Yesterday, DC Comics released the first few pages of their new Superman comic book, Superman Unchained, written by current DC wonderkind Scott Snyder with pencils from the legendary Jim Lee. The book opens with on a frightened Japanese town, reeling from a recent, horrific attack on a nearby city. A young boy named Ichuru goes outside to escape his parents’ discussion on the attack, only to look up in the sky and find out that his town is going to… Read More »

What does the world look like after “The Avengers?” In our world and Marvel’s, that is the question facing the characters in “Iron Man 3.” Following the huge success of Marvel’s “The Avengers,” how can these films return to their original, stand alone nature? Is that even possible? And, for Tony Stark, as the trailer suggests, even he isn’t sure how to continue after fighting an alien invasion alongside a god, a beast, and a legend. How do you deal… Read More »

Every great comic book character has a resurrection story and now, so does Four Colors. I debated back and forth with how I was going to start the blog back up. Initially, I was going to just skirt past the elephant in the room, which is the fact that there have been two (2!) posts in the past year. I wanted it to sound like there was some explanation other than life getting in the way, even make a joke about starting Season… Read More »

If you read this blog, you are hopefully aware of two things: 1) Spider-Man (specifically Ultimate Spider-Man) is my favorite superhero 2) He died. In the past couple of weeks though, just after I wrote Peter Parker’s obituary, Marvel revealed who would succeed him as Spider-Man in the Ultimate Universe, a young man by the name of Miles Morales. Not only is he replacing the iconic Peter Parker (something that hardly goes well with fanboys), but he is also half-black,… Read More »

About This Blog

Little is known about Trevor Reece. Possibly sent to Earth by his father Jor-El before his home planet of Krypton was destroyed, barely anything is truly fact. The only that is certain is that for the past 10 years, Trevor has been an avid reader of comic books and anything related to them, including books on the history, the criticisms, and critiques of the medium and the recent slew of films that have come out in the past decade. And please forget about that whole thing about Krypton. That was a joke. Trevor isn’t Superman, that’d be ridiculous. Almost as ridiculous as Clark Kent being Superman. Wouldn’t it be hilarious if it turned out THAT guy was Superman?